Dressing your daughter in pink ‘damages the future of our economy’. ”What is it that women bring?” Historian Starkey slammed.

Julia Manning: The Conservatives need all-women shortlists now Conservative Home …When a gender-blind application process is put in place, fairness increases. A Princeton study in 1997 looked at the effect of holding auditions for symphony orchestras with the musicians performing behind a screen so they could be heard but not seen. They found that the success rate of women increased by 50 per cent. However, this sort of gender-blind process is not possible in many sectors.

The subtleties of gender discrimination are compounded by our emotional vulnerability when it comes to what we value. In the calm of the day we seek character, competence and chemistry; in the heat of the moment, in selection and interview meetings, we are persuaded by charisma, charm and blatant competitiveness. Even having a lower-register voice is heard as being more acoustically robust and associated more with authority, regardless of content. The latter ‘qualities’ are far more likely to be exhibited by a man and we forget that gentle, relaxed, softly-spoken people can be super-achievers.

“This is really exciting, ooh,” quipped Starkey as he flapped and waved his arms on the panel. “What I was saying about women illustrated.” Twitter responded instantly to the comments on the show, comedian Katy Brand posted: “…I just think Starkey’s a joke now so he has no power. Need to save the fury for Cameron and his stinky mates.”

MPs: gender bias ‘putting women off top science jobs’ Telegraph.co.uk Women are being put off careers in science because of the pressures of family life combined with “biases” in the workplace, according to MPs. The Commons Science and Technology Committee said that women were significantly under-represented in senior academic posts and high-tech industries.

In a report, the cross-party group revealed that just one-in-eight jobs requiring advanced science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM) skills went to women. MPs said it was “astonishing” that there was such a shortage of female scientists.

Jenny Willott, the Minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs, expressed her opposition to the gender-specific marketing of children’s toys during a Westminster Hall debate led by Labour’s Chi Onwurah, MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central.

The Liberal Democrat Business minister insisted youngsters should not be made to feel guilty or ashamed for experimenting with different toys, adding boys should feel free to play with a pushchair and girls to kick a football.

She said by limiting our children’s toys, we tell our daughters and sons their gender “defines the roles they will play in society well into the future and defines what dreams they may have”.

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Published by psawomenpolitics

The UK Political Studies Association Women and Politics Specialist Group. Resource for researchers working on women and/or gender and for women in the PSA. The 2014 Specialist Group of the Year.
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